From Molecules to Systems: Towards an Integrated Heuristic for Understanding the Physics of Life

在过去的50年里，我们对生物学的理解取得了巨大的进步，在最基本的水平上，在分子尺度上。例如，DNA的结构已经被发现，编码在其结构中的遗传信息已经开始被研究出来。我们知道，在较大的生物体中，许多生物分子与特定类型的行为相关联：例如，有些人具有对特定疾病的遗传易感性。然而，理解细胞内单个分子与人的行为之间的复杂联系是一项非常困难的挑战。我们可以专注于单个分子，并非常详细地了解它们的结构和行为，但每个人的身体都包含大量不同类型的分子，挑战在于试图将每个细胞内分子之间相互作用的复杂系统整合在一起；组织功能：导致组织功能的细胞之间的关系；以及组织和器官整合成一个完整的人的方式。例如，当一个人发现自己患有癌症时，很有可能这种疾病始于单个分子的变化；但这将引发一个惊人的复杂连锁连锁的因果链，导致疾病的形成，现代表观遗传学也表明，一个复杂的因果链很可能在最初的变化之前就已经发生了。解开这个相互作用的网络是一个巨大的挑战，但它无疑是目前生物学面临的最重要的问题。很明显，生物系统在不同的长度尺度（分子/细胞/组织/人）上起作用，挑战在于整合跨长度尺度的理解。例如，生物学家思考分子的方式与他们思考生态系统的方式非常不同，尽管一个分子事件可以引发生态系统的变化。多年来，物理学一直在研究跨长度尺度的积分问题。在最极端的情况下，量子引力试图将量子力学（研究物质的最小组成部分）和广义相对论（描述行星、恒星和星系的行为）的定律结合起来。重要的是，物理学家一直在思考细节，以及如何跨长度尺度整合，以形成一个非常大的系统的图像。我们相信这给物理学家提供了独特的见解，可能也有助于生物学家整合他们在长度尺度上的思考。该网络提案的目标是激发物理学家和生物学家之间的合作，共同应对这一重要挑战。该网络将提供一系列活动，旨在帮助物理学家和生物学家建立新的伙伴关系，致力于寻找一个框架，以了解跨越长度尺度的生物学。三个初始事件将集中于关键挑战（多少分子聚集在一起形成一个活细胞？）我们能否构建出复制细胞行为的合成系统，并让我们了解从分子到细胞的整合是如何运作的？在组织、生物膜或其他形式中，许多细胞是如何协同工作的？)在这些初步活动之后，将开展一系列活动，以提供将主要物理学家和生物学家聚集在一起的手段，以解决所确定的重要挑战。我们的目标是提供一个框架，在这个框架内，物理学家和生物学家可以一起工作，了解跨越长度尺度的生物学。这一努力的回报是多方面的，包括对疾病（例如癌症）、生态系统和环境、光合作用和生物能收集、生物技术和生物膜有了更好的了解。这将不可避免地对英国的许多生物科学相关产业以及公民的健康和生活质量作出重大贡献。

The last fifty years have seen enormous strides in our understanding of biology at the most basic level, the molecular scale. For example, the structure of DNA has been discovered, and the genetic information encoded in its structure has begun to be worked out. We know that many biological molecules are associated with particular types of behaviour in larger organisms: for example some people have a genetic predisposition to particular diseases. However, understanding the complex links in the chain between a single molecule inside a cell and the behaviour of a person is a very difficult challenge. We can focus in on individual molecules and understand their structures and behaviour in great detail, but every human body contains vast numbers of molecules of many different types, and the challenge is to try to put together the complex systems of interactions between molecules that go on inside each cell; the relationships between cells that lead to the function of tissue; and the way that tissues and organs are integrated into a whole person. When a person discovers they have cancer, for example, there is a strong chance that the disease began with a change in a single molecule; but this will have initiated a staggeringly complex cascade of knock-on chains of cause-and-effect that led to the formation of the disease, and modern epigenetics is also suggesting that a complex chain of cause-and-effect may very well have preceded that initial change. Untangling this web of interactions is an enormous challenge but it is undoubtedly the most important problem facing biology at present.It is clear that biological systems function on different length scales (molecules/cells/tissues/people) and the challenge is to integrate understanding across the length scales. The ways that biologists think about molecules are very different from the ways that they think about ecosystems, for example, even though a molecular event can trigger a change in an ecosystem. Physics has been addressing the problem of integrating across length scales for many years. At the most extreme, quantum gravity tries to integrate the laws of quantum mechanics (which deals with the smallest building blocks of matter) and general relativity (which describes the behaviour of planets, stars and galaxies). Importantly, physicists have been thinking about detail and also how to integrate across length scales to develop a picture of very large systems. We believe that this gives physicists unique insights that may potentially help biologists to integrate their thinking across the length scales too. The goal of this Network proposal is to stimulate engagement between physicists and biologists to tackle this important challenge together.The Network will provide a range of activities designed to help physicists and biologists build new partnerships devoted to finding a framework to understand biology across the length scales. Three initial events will focus on key challenges (How do many molecules come together to form a living cell? Can we build synthetic systems that replicate cell behaviour and allow us to understand how the integration from molecules to cells functions? How do many cells work together in tissue, biofilm or other forms?) Following these initial events a series of activities will be developed to provide the means of bringing leading physicists and biologists together to address the important challenges identified.Our goal will be to provide a framework from within which physicists and biologists can work together to understand biology across the length scales. The rewards for this effort are many, including the development of a better understanding of disease (for example, cancer), ecosystems and the environment, photosynthesis and biological energy harvesting, biotechnology and biofilms. Inevitably this will contribute substantially to the many bioscience-related industries in the UK and to the health and quality of life of its citizens.